


Notes from Night Vale: One of the Beings Purported to Be an Angel

by parsnips (trifles)



Series: Tumblr Treasures [16]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, Memory, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, the nature of happiness, tumblr reply
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8183399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trifles/pseuds/parsnips
Summary: Welcome to Night Vale's newest segment turns up again: A listener reports a lost item.
(report submitted by tumblr user awesomecrime; audio recording available in the tumblr link)





	

–-and no one’s been able to touch that part of the street, or Alfie Takemura, since.

And now it’s time for another Note from Night Vale, a segment of our show where I read out a letter from our community. Let’s dig around in the mail bag… oh, here we go! Huh.

Unlike many of the letters in the bag, listeners, this one appears to be of rough animal hide, one side scraped clean and the other still bearing coarse fur and the ragged edges that you only see in skin parchment from the expensive aisle at Office Max. The ink is dark, and I find it difficult to look at the words straight on, but if I turn it to the side…

> _For the Night Vale. I have lost the keys to my car. I do not own a car. I do not even know how to drive one. Regardless, my car keys have been lost. They are recognizable by their keychain, which is a crystalized fragment of your happiest memory, now forever lost to you. If found, please leave in the lone mail box by the edge of the sand wastes._

Well. I think what we clearly have here is a letter from one of the angels. Or one of the nonexistent beings purporting to be an angel. Or someone with really nice taste in stationary, at the very least. In any case, I think we can help them out with their lost car keys, right? That’s what being a good member of the community is all about.

The only thing unclear to me about this –- and I urge Erika to call in and clarify if it can -– is whether the happy memory is _my_ memory in particular, or _everyone’s_ happy memory, simultaneously. I’m not sure it matters, really, but, on the other hand, well. I hope it’s not just mine. That wouldn’t seem fair at all.

Because I don’t know about you, listeners, but it comforts me to think that somewhere out there, somehow, someone is keeping my happiest memory safe, preserved, not worn away and forgotten through the ravages of time or, worse, made false by a mind that seeks to relive a time and rewrites it instead. Whatever my happiest memory is, it will always be.

Somewhere, I am truly happy. Somewhen, there was a moment I felt total joy. And the best part, listeners, the best part is, that if I think about all the things I still remember, even with this happiest memory taken away, I would think that I could not be any happier. Listeners, I am in _love_. And I think -– I hope -– I regularly submit paperwork to the city council to support my hypothesis -– that _he_ loves _me_.

Imagine, listeners, that there is a greater happiness than that. And it is somewhere safe, and protected, and it always will be. Keep it like a light, somewhere above the sand wastes, traveling at cautious speeds, that you can see if you watch for them above the Arby’s. There are always lights above the Arby’s, and you will always know where your happiest memories are. That in itself is happiness.

Look what gifts the day has granted you.

Good night, Night Vale, good night.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [tumblr](http://triflesandparsnips.tumblr.com/post/58006385345/triflesandparsnips-dudes-dudes-write-me-a-note), with audio and transcript.


End file.
